We Were Kids Once
by DenimPants
Summary: A lot has changed in the years since Bolin had defeated Sato. But where there is one victory, there must also be a tragedy. And sometimes it takes a good friend to comfort those left behind by an old enemy. (A short clip of life, years after Korra joins the Fire Ferrets. Korra breaks up with Mako. Asami's mother's murder captured. Bolin just misses his brother. Asami/Mako.)


Bolin had been looking forward to a full day of practice. For the last few months, he had been able to see himself improving. It was a funny thing, having a team of benders that lasted for five years without breaking up. In the past, Bolin's brother, Mako always clashed with whoever they recruited as their waterbender. And though Korra and Mako had their falling out, their bond as a team was something that could not be broken. Not after everything now, anyway.

Bolin had been looking forward to a full day of practice. For the last few months, he had noticed Mako drifting away. Training for Pro-bending was the only time, these days, that Bolin felt he knew his brother was still there for him. And though he still felt a strong bond with their waterbender, Korra's continuing training as the Avatar had limited their time her. Her chemistry with the brothers and her natural skill as a bender made it almost impossible for Mako and Bolin to turn her away; finding time for all three of them to be together was becoming increasingly difficult with age.

Bolin had been looking forward to a full day of practice. Which was why he was so heartbroken , when Asami stormed on their training after having somehow heard of Mako's itenary of the last month.

And though many things have changed between team Avatar since that first fateful year- many other things hadn't.

"Ever since the first day of Hakdi's trial, you've been super sensitive to all things bending!" Mako countered, his voice had become a boom against Asami's accusations, "Won't you even give LimKong a chance? You're just being a witch to her and me because you haven't forgiven fire benders for murdering your mother!"

"HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT!" Asami roared, "After everything I have done for **YOU**, how dare you say _anything_ like that!"

"Just admit it: Benders make bad people. You said so yourself at the dinner table: Hakdi is a bad firebender who breeds bad firebenders."

"Just because that maniac murdered my mother with firebending doesn't make me hate benders! That man isn't evil because he is a bad fire bender. That firebender is evil because he is a bad man! Hakdi Zuroshi murdered four people WITH his powers, not because of them." Asami didn't falter, her mascara had started to smear but they pooled like angry black clouds around her fierce green eyes. "And you didn't cheat on me because the other girl was a bender. You cheated on me because you're a little douchebag!"

The firebender found his anger again, it boiled up and churned till his teeth were warmed with the fire on his breath. "I never cheated on you!"

"You never-!" She slapped him across the face then stormed out of the dojo.

Mako took a step back, dumbstruck and belittled by his firey ex-girlfriend.

Korra and Bolin made a face, but by now, they knew better than to get in the way of the team's resident engineer when she was in a mood. Especially when it came to the remnants of the romantic relationship between Asami and Mako: Korra stood well enough away.

Asami was right, Mako had been dishonest with her about the relationship- though she wasn't surprised if he didn't see it that way. Especially now since the Zuroshi trial was back in court. Both were even more agitated than usual- which, for those two, meant a lot.

It was hard enough for her to try and reconcile with Asami (of whom she quite liked) after the incident with Mako (who she still had feelings for). Her ground with Asami had to stay platonic at best: Small talk, pro-bending and cars. But the Avatar still wish she could have explained to Asami how Mako saw his date with LimKong. Or how oblivious he was to LimKong's skeevy situation.

Bolin had made a keen observation about his brother to the Avatar before, he had said that Mako's passion is as much a part of his troubles in relationships as it is his rewards. He hates that pain, but doesn't think ahead far enough to prevent his temper from flaring up and burning him.

_"That's why he rarely starts relationships. My brother is scared of those kinds of things, almost as much as he wants to jump into it."_

Korra nudged Bolin and the two of them began busily doing pair stretches by the stone trainers. Mako was not fooled.

"Well spit it out already!" he wasn't very good at holding his temper for long.

"What? hmm?" Bolin shook his head, put his hand on the back of his ear then decided instead to make a 'confused' face. Korra thought he looked constipated. "I don't know what you're referring to. I mean, Asami's off her rocker! And I know you didn't do anything dirty with LimKong-" (Korra elbowed the earthbender between the pads,) "Though you probably shouldn't have slept the night over at LimKong's apartment-" (Korra elbowed him again.) "Asami will cool off. She's pretty mature you know, just give her some time; lay low."

"I'm not an idiot." Mako admitted, his flare dropping a bit when his brother's familiar voice found his heart. "I know you two have something to say about LimKong. You've had something against her, too, since we met."

"She's a nice girl, Mako." Korra said, "But she **doesn't** deserve you."

"She needs someone."

"I really don't think so, Bro." Bolin took a brave step to his older brother, "She's a lot stronger than she's letting on to you. And I really don't think she's ready for someone like you. When you're with her, you don't have time for anything else. And she's using that- she knows it. And honestly, the more time you spend time with her, the less I recognize in you."

Mako frowned deeply then turned his back toward his team mates, "You don't understand either..."

Bolin was hurt. So he didn't say anything back to him. Of course he wanted to understand- Mako was his brother, his only family... but the truth was, he really didn't understand why he was with the junkie.

Korra's voice cut through the silence. "Mako, we're just trying to tell you what we can see. All those good things you have with her, we've never seen them. And we're not saying that you don't have anything real with her, because you do- you and she have shared a unique experience together. But it's over now, and you have to let her go or we will never find you again."

Mako said nothing for a little while, then finally put his untouched helmet back on the locker rack. Korra and Bolin exchanged glances. "I don't feel like training today." And then he went off without any indication of where he intended to go.

Korra watched a bit heartbroken. Days like these were never easy, and they had much too many of them. Bolin turned to her and said, "Funny thing… Neither do I."

Korra put her helmet on then headed to the water gates. "I think I'll stay here and work a few things out. Meet you for noodles later?"

"Sure." The earthbender started unstrapping his pads. "Korra,-"

She turned to him

"-Head's up!"

Her swing sliced through the slow moving stone projectile and a splash of powered ash dusted her eyelids.

She smiled then took that as the opportunity to discretely brush away the tear that had started to prick behind her eye.

_**- - - - **{Later}_**_ - - - -_ **

Bolin came out of the community center about twenty minutes later smelling like a rose. If there were good things about working out with Korra, it was that there was always soap. Pleased with himself and trying not to let his brother's brood get him down, the earthbender was whistling when he stepped out of the door into the frosty RepublicCity air.

Mako's bike was gone. Bolin's was chained to the same rack as Korra's and at first he made a bee line to it when he notice the familiar white shape that was Naga.

She had come to the lakeside of the community center where a wide fenced footpath outlined the south end of the bay. While it didn't have as breathtaking a skyline view as the bridge or the bank district, it did have a little treasure of a sight toward the Ang memorial, the pro-bending arena, and the RepublicCity air temple.

"To pick up Korra," Bolin figured, he unlocked his bike then walked it to the polar beardog.

Naga growled warmly, then nudged her nose against the another figure's face, his black snout smearing dry black tears.

"Asami," Bolin stopped his bike in front of the girl. Awkwardly he added, "You okay?"

"Hey Bolin," Asami pulled a strand of hair out of her mouth then tucked her hands back into her pockets. "I don't suppose **Mako's** jumped off of a cliff yet."

"Figuratively, but not literally," the other responded, propping his bike on the metal fence. "But he may yet."

Asami chuckled then said, "Well in that case I 'may yet' be okay."

Bolin unravelled his scarf. It wasn't particularly cold, but Asami was shivering. He almost liked the little chilled bite that came with simply wearing long sleeves. He wrapped the orphan in it and then leaned on the fence with her.

She didn't thank him, but she did smile – and not for the first time, Bolin wondered why his brother ever gave up on such a gorgeous girl. Asami wasn't his type, but that didn't mean he didn't see how her eyes sparkled like jade, or how her skin glowed like gold. She was a strong willed woman, and level headed, and kind. He didn't want Asami to be hurt almost as much as he didn't want to see his brother lost.

They stood like that for a few minutes. Asami, then Naga, then Bolin. And they looked out to the waterline. The United Forces Fleet was docked, and Iroh was somewhere in the city with Bumi having a beer.

"Bolin." The earthbender turned. "Am I crazy?"

"On occasion, Yeah," he replied. "But also on occasion, my brother _is_ a moron. And besides, not-crazy girls are super boring; you want to be a little bit crazy. Or else we'd never drive anywhere."

She chuckled. Then turned to him, "When I first met your brother, he walked out into my mo'ped and I hit him very hard."

"I heard that," Bolin smiled back, "He probably deserved it, not paying attention to where he was going or doing or all of that. Though he says you were speeding."

"I might have been," she admitted.

He did laugh aloud at her about that. Sometimes Bolin hated how he was constantly getting friend zoned. The moment he introduced any potential girl to his brother, he was automatically shelved onto 'the cute platonic guy [they] could trust to tell anything to' category. But that being said, it's times like these he was so glad he could just talk and cheer up the women in his life who he was starting to see as family.

Asami was automatically out of his league when Mako introduced him to her. And as a general rule, he would put aside any notion that he could share anything with his brother. It would, in some way or another, eventually become Makos. And the truth was, Bolin didn't want to fight over something too trivial.

Bolin liked Asami, but if he was forced to pick a side, he would have to stand with his brother.

Fortunately enough, Asami had not asked him to choose. Yet.

"You're going to be mad at him for a long time, huh?" Even to his own ears, the question sounded kind of lame.

"Hmm." She adjusted the scarf around her neck so that it didn't cover her mouth, "I guess not."

This was not the answer the earthbender had expected, though he tried not to gawk at the ex girlfriend in law. She was looking solemnly out at the Ang memorial and there was a deathly calm about her.

"I mean really, the first time… with Korra, that was a shock. I thought we had something, like, really had something, Bolin. So when we broke up the first time however many years ago, yeah… I was mad for a long time.

"But I guess I learned then that we weren't going to be. And I just thought maybe it was Korra. Maybe she was just _right_ for him. Then **you **know what happened… So when he asked me back this time as much as I wanted it, I knew that Mako and I would never have what we had before."

She trailed off and Bolin leaned around Naga's face to look at her.

"Then why did you agree to it." A very cold wind flew up under his shirt and he tried to ignore it when he continued, "Why would you go out with him again knowing you weren't in love with him anymore?"

She shrugged, "I guess it just reminded me of the time before this all happened. When I first met you. When I had my home and my father—when I didn't know." She chuckled, "I mean, I am gratefully for **everything** you and your brother and Korra and the Air Temple have done for me. I'm so grateful and there are times when I am truly happy! But sometimes…"

Bolin just nodded, he would never know what it was like to live in a grand mansion with a famous father; but he does remember what it was like to be free from burden and safe in the arms of a loving parent. And for this, he really could relate to Asami. "You just miss being home."

Asami squinted her eyes into angry knots, and though some others may have been fooled, Bolin knew this was how she prevented herself from crying.

"Well, I know we're not family—but if it means anything, you always have me and Pabu!"

She did chuckle this time lifted herself off of the fence and stretched—she laced her long gloved fingers into the air and then exhaled slowly releasing a thin white cloud of a sigh.

Naga perked then tore away from the duo and toward the front door of the community center where the Avatar was tucking her coat in. She spied the both of them then waved before getting barrelled in by her polar beardog.

"LET'S GET DINNER" She shouted at them. It didn't appear she had combed her hair.

* * *

_AN:_

_So I'm going to admit it right away, I took some liberties with the possible future of the Fire Ferret's lives. I also made the assumption that there is never a peace between their adventures, that their troubles are ongoing. In this case, this clip is set in the middle of a time where Asami's mother's murderer was captured and is being put on trial as an example for all benders. This is creating additonal bending/non-bending tension (much like high-profile gun cases). An earthbender named LimKong is trying to join Republic City's bending Triad and is using Mako to shoe-in. And of course, Korra has just finished a mission and has recently been able to have some free-time to herself._

I was not quite as impressed by Avatar, Legend of Korra, quite as much as I loved the Original Avatar the Last Airbender. I had also thought that it was originally planned to be a 3 book series. But through Wiki found out it had been a 1shot mini first, then would become a full-blown series. So a lot of my complaints (the charachter development and romance development was too fast... the exploration of the world was kind of truncated... etc.) are now up in the air for re-evaluation.

A thing or two about the charachters. I hated how much of a weak charachter Korra ended up becoming. I had such hopes for her and she showed such potential. I still like the concept and the image she stands for, but half of the time (Especially when it came to her relationship with Bolin and Mako) I wanted to hit her hard.

I really wanted to like Mako. Super fangirl for the win. But the more I watched, the more I realized he was kind of a giant tool. It was like someone wrote a really bad fan-fiction about Zuko and Katara (another pair I hate, by the way) and just switched the characther names.

Like most others, Bolin was just another person in the show- to create warm bodies. And while the show focused more on his brother and Korra and Tenzin, i could not help but wish they developed more dimenions on the earthbender. I mean, he's not just a clown, he couldn't be. They hinted he was a lot deeper than that, but then of course, Makorra kind of inturrupted this.

On the other hand, because of Makorra, we see more of Asami. Of all the people in the show that we focus on, she is by far my favorite. And throughout the show, I cannot help but see the ever spirling tragedy in her life. A lot of people didn't like her, that she was winy and useless as a non-bender. But I found the opposite. She willingly gave up everything to stand by her morals, even if that meant betraying a father she loved- she was reacting responsibly when her boyfriend cheated on her with the avatar- She still supported benders even though her mother was murdered by one- she never betrayed the team, even though they gave her no reason to be loyal to them. That and she's this hot, asian-looking engineer. I can't help but relate.

... Sorry. Rant.

Anyway, I wanted to give Asami and Bolin some sympathy. I doubt they would make a good pair, but sometimes the ones that don't look nice together just fit.


End file.
